Naked, Dead & Back to the Big Screen

Mailer-Kerry ’08!

John Kerry endorsed Barack Obama for president last week, but his daughter Alexandra is throwing herself into another antiwar effort—producing a film version of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. “We're discussing doing a reading of it with Alec Baldwin and Harvey Keitel and Josh Lucas,” she said at Julian Schnabel’s art opening on January 8. The screenplay is by the author’s son, John Buffalo Mailer. “It’s just an honest portrayal of what it’s like to be at war,” the young Mailer says. “Because it’s an honest portrayal of the army, that’s what makes it antiwar.” No director is attached, but Mailer says he wants someone who understands his father’s work. “The government has been talking about going to war with Iran—that’s why I feel it’s essential to do this movie now, to view war through this lens. My big regret about this project is that my father won’t get to see it. I hope that he’ll be aware of it anyway, somehow.”